FLORENCE, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: Immigrant detainees walk through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention facility on February 28, 2013 in Florence, Arizona. With the possibility of federal budget sequestration, ICE released 303 immigration detainees in the last week from detention facilities throught Arizona. More than 2,000 immigration detainees remain in ICE custody in the state. Most detainees typically remain in custody for several weeks before they are deported to their home country, while others remain for longer periods while their immigration cases work through the courts. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) less

FLORENCE, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: Immigrant detainees walk through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention facility on February 28, 2013 in Florence, Arizona. With the possibility of federal budget ... more

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

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FLORENCE, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: Immigration detainees stand behind bars at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention facility on February 28, 2013 in Florence, Arizona. With the possibility of federal budget sequestration, ICE released 303 immigration detainees in the last week from detention centers throught Arizona. Most detainees typically remain in custody for several weeks before they are deported to their home country, while others remain for longer periods while their immigration cases work through the courts. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) less

FLORENCE, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: Immigration detainees stand behind bars at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention facility on February 28, 2013 in Florence, Arizona. With the possibility of ... more

Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

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Government set to free the undocumented

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Thousands of undocumented immigrants, snared by government policies that keep them confined in detention centers, could be freed.

"It costs the government $140 a day to keep to each person in detention. So that's $2.8 million a day for those 20,000 people.

"The average stay for people in detention is two weeks," said Meyerovich, of Bridgeport. "So we're talking about saving $40 million or so. That's not a small amount."

Because of across-the-board government cuts mandated by Congress as part of its 2011 debt-ceiling agreement and barring a late deal to avert the so-called sequester, that release is to be carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Because these detained immigrants are held in a place removed from family, often without legal counsel, Zurowski said she was not upset by ICE's move.

"Of all the devastating things being caused by sequestration, it's not the most devastating thing I've heard of," she said.

It's unclear where detained immigrants would go if released. Immigration attorney Cynthia Exner, of Danbury, said none has asked her for legal advice.

Meyerovich said some might come to him for help, including some he counseled while they've been detained.

An announcement of imminent release "only happened two days ago," Meyerovich said. "People are in denial. They last thing they want to do right now is talk to an immigration lawyer. I think we'll start getting calls by the middle of next week."

Some, given their freedom, "will disappear" and try to escape the system entirely, Meyerovich said.

But Stamford attorney Paul Berckmans said most of those released would simply return to their communities and to their families.

"They'll resume what they were doing before they were picked up," he said.

Berckmans said the immigrants would wait for promised changes in the nation's immigration laws.

"It may take a year, a couple of years," he said.

ICE announced the release plan a few days before Friday's sequestration deadline.

"As fiscal uncertainty remains over the continuing resolution and possible sequestration, ICE has reviewed its detained population to ensure detention levels stay within ICE's current budget," said ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein. "Over the last week, ICE has reviewed several hundred cases and placed these individuals on methods of supervision less costly than detention.

"All of these individuals remain in removal proceedings," Feinstein said. "Priority for detention remains on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety."

Connecticut has no federal detention center for undocumented immigrants.

Alvarez-DiMarzo said in most cases in which undocumented immigrants from the Danbury area end up in detention, the cause is repeated arrests for drug abuse or domestic violence.

"You have to look at these things on a case-by-case basis," she said.

Alvarez-DiMarzo also said that detention can be highly disruptive for family members who aren't notified of what has happened. Traveling from Danbury to western Massachusetts isn't easy, she said, adding, "there can be medical issues" involving the people being detained.

Zurowski said she knows of cases in the Bridgeport area where undocumented immigrants are arrested for traffic violations and are sent to detention centers as far away as Virginia.

"The conditions in a detention center are horrible," she said.

And overcrowded. But Meyerovich said the release of undocumented immigrants who do not pose a danger to their communities would help remedy that.

"The detention centers are all packed," he said. "There's no place to put the people."

Exner said many of those released from detention centers are, in effect, placed on probation. They live in the community, but have to periodically check in with ICE supervisors while they wait for their deportation cases to come before a judge. But she said release from a detention center allows them far more normal lives.

"They have lives in their communities," she said. "They have communities."

Berckmans said it makes no sense for the government to detain people in prison-like settings at taxpayer expense for no other crime than being undocumented.